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de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
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Vol.40 N° 74
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Vol. 40, Nº 74 (2022), 936-9
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Recibido el 15/07/22 Aceptado el 12/09/22
Prioritizing Factors Aecting Sexual
Victimization of Children and Identifying
Personality Characteristics of Sex
Delinquents in Iran
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.4074.52
Sahand Mahdavi Zargar *
Shahla Moazami **
Shadi Azimzadeh ***
Abstract
The increased commission of sex crimes in Iran highlights
the need for more eorts to design strategies towards prevention
and reduction of such crimes. Accordingly, the present research
aimed to identify the factors aecting the sexual victimization
of children and adolescents as well as to identify the personality
characteristics of sex delinquents in the criminal justice system
of Iran. The research method is mixed design in terms of data nature
(qualitative and quantitative) and practical in terms of purpose. The
qualitative section has reviewed the previous literature and the quantitative
section has beneted from the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This
research has used the opinions of 13 experts in the eld of crimes against
children and adolescents, and 43 sex oenders. The research ndings led
to the identication of six factors (social, economic, psychological, legal,
executive, media) that are eective on the prevention and postvention
of sexually abused children and adolescents in Iran. The highest rank is
related to the economic and social factors, and the lowest rank is related
to the media factors. The results of this study showed that the identied
parameters are approved by experts and have theoretical support that can
be eective in reducing sexual delinquency.
Keywords: childhood and adolescence; sexual victimization; eective
factors; analytical hierarchy process; Iranian law.
* PhD Student, Department of Law, Ardabil Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ardabil, Iran. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6562-3220
** Associate Professor, Department of Law, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran. ORCID ID: https://orcid.
org/0000-0003-2498-6137
*** Assistant Professor, Department of Law, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6418-6014
937
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 40 Nº 74 (2022): 936-952
Priorización de los factores que afectan la
victimización sexual de los niños e identicación de
las características de personalidad de los delincuentes
sexuales en Irán
Resumen
El aumento de la comisión de delitos sexuales en Irán destaca la
necesidad de más esfuerzos para diseñar estrategias para la prevención
y reducción de tales delitos. En consecuencia, la presente investigación
tuvo como objetivo identicar los factores que afectan la victimización
sexual de niños y adolescentes, así como identicar las características de
personalidad de los delincuentes sexuales en el sistema de justicia penal
de Irán. El método de investigación es de diseño mixto en cuanto a la
naturaleza de los datos (cualitativos y cuantitativos) y práctico en cuanto al
propósito. La sección cualitativa ha revisado la literatura previa y la sección
cuantitativa se ha beneciado del proceso de jerarquía analítica (AHP).
Esta investigación ha utilizado las opiniones de 13 expertos en el campo
de los delitos contra la niñez y la adolescencia, y 43 agresores sexuales. Los
hallazgos llevaron a la identicación de seis factores (social, económico,
psicológico, legal, ejecutivo, mediático) que son efectivos en la prevención
de niños y adolescentes abusados sexualmente en Irán. El rango más alto
está relacionado con los factores económicos y sociales, y el rango más bajo
está relacionado con los factores mediáticos.
Palabras clave: niñez y adolescencia; victimización sexual; factores
efectivos; proceso de jerarquía analítica; derecho iraní.
Introduction
Sex crimes are one of the oldest human deviations, whose traces can
be seen throughout history (Sotoudeh et al, 2015). Sex crimes, behind
murder and assault, are considered one of the most important crimes in the
world, which greatly aect the victim and the society. These crimes are also
of special importance in Iran due to Sharia and Islamic law. The Islamic
government of Iran does not allow the occurrence and spread of such crimes
in any way. Correspondingly, the use of various methods of prevention and
postvention and reduction of these crimes, like other crimes, have always
been considered by lawyers and experts (Tawhidi and Fazli, 2013: 72).
Sex crimes, in its general sense, include any type of sexual behavior for
which punishment is determined by the law (Tawhidi and Fazli, 2013);
and sexual harassment is dened as the imposition of sexual demand on a
person, regardless of their consent, and this occurs when power relations
are unequal (Andersen & Hysock, 2009: 234).
938
Sahand Mahdavi Zargar, Shahla Moazami y Shadi Azimzadeh
Prioritizing Factors Aecting Sexual Victimization of Children and Identifying Personality
Characteristics of Sex Delinquents in Iran
In Iranian law, sexual delinquency was criminalized for the rst time in
Article 3: “Legal bill regarding the punishment of carrying knives and other
types of cold weapons and disturbing public order, security, and comfort”,
approved in 1957; at that time, the victims of this crime were only women
and girls. In 1996, in Article 619 of the Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic
Republic of Iran, the legislator included children in the territory of the
victims of this crime; therefore, currently molestation of boys up to 15 full
lunar years is included in the scope of this crime.
There is no specic denition of sexual harassment in the legal system of
Iran. According to the United Nations, sexual harassment is any unwelcome
physical approach, request for sexual service or other physical, verbal and
non-verbal behaviors (Bagheri, 2017: 428).
There is no denition of sexual harassment in the law of Iran. Despite
the inclusion of the Islamic Penal Code in Article 619 of the Penal Code,
which refers to verbal sexual harassment implicitly, and Article 637 of the
same law, which refers to sexual harassment other than rape (an act that
violates chastity), and nally Article 224, which refers to rape, no precise
denition of the term sexual harassment has been used. However, it should
be noted that it is very dicult to prove sex crimes even in Hudud cases,
and in many cases the perpetrator may go unpunished. The proof of this
claim is related to Article 224 of the Islamic Penal Code.
Rape is also a divine Hudud and it has the aspect of divine right, and the
perpetrator’s repentance and conrmation of it for the judge, despite the
conditions prescribed in religion and law, will cause the punishment to fall
or be changed and reduced. Unlike qisas, which has the aspect of human
rights and is not removed by the perpetrator’s repentance, and the judge
is not allowed to reduce or convert it without the consent of the victim or
the guardians, in rape and fornication by force, according to Article 114 of
the Islamic Penal Code, if the perpetrator of fornication repents before the
crime is proven, and in some cases even after the crime is proven, and his
repentance is veried by the judge, even without obtaining permission from
the plainti, the judge can cancel the Hudud punishment of his execution.
However, based on Note 2 of the same law, regarding the general
aspect of the crime, this aggressor should be sentenced to imprisonment
or ogging of the sixth degree or both. On the other hand, with more
precision in the mentioned legal cases, it seems that these actions were
only to preserve the sanctity of Sharia and not to preserve the rights of the
victim. In addition, Article 619 itself has caused a lot of confusion because
it is not easy to distinguish what action is inside or outside of this article.
It can be concluded that the failure to mention the evidence related to sex
crimes causes the lack of follow-up by the law and also leads to the failure
to preserve the dignity and framework of privacy of individuals.
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Vol. 40 Nº 74 (2022): 936-952
It seems that the increasing spread of abnormalities in sexual relations in
recent years shows the ineectiveness of the legislator’s reactive approach
in the eld of crimes and sexual abnormalities. Despite the excessive
increase in the rate of committing sex crimes and the increase in the rate
of sex crimes in the society, these crimes have not received much attention
from experts and specialists in various elds for unknown reasons.
Considering the spread of these crimes and their appearance in virtual
spaces and people’s awareness of this type of behavior, it is considered
necessary to criminalize and inform the family, children and adolescents;
and this type of education has not yet been implemented in the media,
schools, etc., and even their expression is considered obscene; since the
reasons and factors for the occurrence of this crime are dierent and
on the other hand, this class of society (children and adolescents) has a
more sensitive and vulnerable psychological and social status than others;
therefore, an eective method should be adopted according to the conditions
and situation of these people.
Nevertheless, previous researches have each addressed one aspect
of prevention and postvention of sexual victimization; accordingly, this
research was designed and compiled with the aim of providing a model
of prevention and postvention of sexual victimization of children and
adolescents in the criminal justice system of Iran to answer the question,
what factors are eective on the prevention and postvention of sexually
victimized children and adolescents in Iran?
1. Theoretical principles
It should be kept in mind that sexual victimization is one of the issues
that has roots in dierent elds and scientic elds, with multifaceted
causes. Nowadays, due to the complexity and multidimensionality of the
causes of sexual victimization and the ineectiveness of single-disciplinary
knowledge, there is a need for comprehensive and multidimensional
investigations. Child abuse, like other phenomena, has causes and factors
that become the basis and because of its occurrence. In the research
literature, some studies presented the cause of sexual abuse in a general
way.
Some sociologists and psychologists believe that some social and family
factors, including the place of residence, migration from the village to
the city, drug addiction, parental divorce, parental alcoholism, smoking,
parental death, conicts and ghts in the family, staying alone at home,
having a separate room, fear of the child at home aect the incidence of
sexual victimization of children and adolescents (Delia, 2020; Savioja,
2019; Stewart et al., 2019; Letourneau et al., 2017; Woodward et al., 2017;
Arslan et al., 2016).
940
Sahand Mahdavi Zargar, Shahla Moazami y Shadi Azimzadeh
Prioritizing Factors Aecting Sexual Victimization of Children and Identifying Personality
Characteristics of Sex Delinquents in Iran
Some researchers reported that economic factors such as parental
occupation, occupation of sex delinquents, type of residential home, family
income, oer of gift or money to sexually abused children, and the level
of educational facilities of schools are involved in this eld (Hosseini and
Safari, 2014; Mohseni, 2012; Stewat et al., 2019; Letourneau et al., 2017;
Kirby, 2015).
Psychological researchers believe that there are some factors aecting
sex oenders, including the preference to wear clothes of the opposite
sex, orientation towards the opposite sex, desire to have sex, enjoying
sex, watching porn videos and photos, seeing the intimacy and sex of
others, seeing the intimacy and sex of parents, having friends who have
been sexually assaulted, corporal punishment of the child, swearing at
the child in the family, lack of peace in the family, conicts with siblings,
strict parents, having strict teachers, making fun of the child in the family,
aggressive behavior before sexual assault, depression of the sex oender,
the sex oender’s anger, high self-condence in the sex oender, fear of
the sex oender, isolation of the sex oender, lack of self-control in the sex
oender, feelings of guilt or worthlessness in the sex oender, mental or
practical obsession (Abed Khorasani, 2010; Amran et al., 2020; Siria et al.,
2020; Savioja, 2019; McMunn, 2019; Woodward et al., 2017; McCuish and
Lussier, 2017; Curcio et al., 2013).
Physicians and biologists introduced some inuential factors in this
eld, including the weight of sexually abused children, skin color of sexually
abused children, hair color of sexually abused children, eye color of sexually
abused children, order of sexually abused children in the family, and
physical condition (Smallbone et al., 2013; Letourneau et al., 2017).
In the law books and documents in the eld of sexual delinquency, there
are reports about the inuencing factors in this regard, including the age of
sexually abused children, the age of sex delinquents, the gender of sexually
abused children, educational status, the number of family members of
sexually abused children, age gap with friends, time of sexual assault of
sexually abused children, age gap of sexually abused children with the person
who sexually assaulted, and marital status of sex delinquents (Hosseini and
Safari, 2014; Mohseni, 2012; Stewart et al., 2019; Letourneau et al., 2017;
Kirby, 2015).
In the last decade, media factors have shown their importance in this
regard, including the use of satellites, the possession of personal mobile
phones of sexually abused children, the use of mass media such as Telegram,
WhatsApp, and Instagram (Bagheri, 2017; Letourneau et al., 2017; Choi
et al., 2017; Wykes, 2017). According to the mentioned introduction, the
theoretical foundations of sexual victimization can be classied into six
categories including social, economic, media, psychological, legal and
executive factors.
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 40 Nº 74 (2022): 936-952
2. Methods
The research method is mixed design in terms of data nature (qualitative
and quantitative) and practical in terms of purpose. The qualitative
section has reviewed the previous literature and the quantitative section
has beneted from the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The statistical
population in the quantitative section included all experts, specialists and
professors related or informed in the eld of sex crimes against children
and adolescents in the country, so that we used the opinions of 13 experts
in the eld of criminal law and criminology.
Therefore, following the design of the questionnaire through AHP,
experts in the eld of criminal law and criminology were asked to rate each
of the criteria and determine the priority of each of the criteria. In using
AHP to solve the evaluation process, ve basic steps were performed as
follows:
• The rst step: Forming the hierarchy.
• The second step: Determining the importance coecient of criteria
and sub-criteria.
• The third step: Determining the importance coecient of items.
• The fourth step: Determining the nal score (priority of items).
• The fth step: Examining the consistency of judgments.
Expert Choice software was used for analysis and analytic hierarchy
process.
Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors questionnaire was used to determine the
personality characteristics of sex delinquents, and 43 sex delinquents were
used in this section.
3. Results
Ranking of factors aecting sexual victimization
In this research, the factors aecting sexual delinquency were identied
through theoretical literature, which were divided into six categories
including economic, social, psychological, legal, executive and media.
After developing the model, a questionnaire was designed and re-
evaluated by experts to check the eect of each factor. The designed
questionnaire is given in Table 1.
942
Sahand Mahdavi Zargar, Shahla Moazami y Shadi Azimzadeh
Prioritizing Factors Aecting Sexual Victimization of Children and Identifying Personality
Characteristics of Sex Delinquents in Iran
Table 1. Factors aecting sexual delinquency
No. Eective factors Number of experts’ response to items
Low Moderate High Very high
1 Social 0 0 3 10
2 Economic 0 0 4 9
3 Psychological 0 0 3 10
4 Media 0 0 4 9
5 Legal 0 0 4 9
6Executive 0 0 5 8
Source: authors’ elaboration.
After collecting the questionnaires, the results obtained from the
responses were analyzed. In order for the degree of importance of each
criterion to be known, specic numerical values were assigned to the options
of the degree of inuence (low=2, moderate=4, high=7, very high=10).
By summing and averaging the obtained values for each factor, the
eectiveness of the factors was determined. Factors that had an inuence
among variables as value as between 7 and 10 (very high inuence) were
considered as main criteria.
Table 2. Determining factors aecting sexual delinquency
No. Main criteria Mean value Result
1 Social 9.307 Acceptable
2 Economic 9.076 Acceptable
3 Psychological 9.307 Acceptable
4 Media 9.076 Acceptable
5 Legal 9.076 Acceptable
6Executive 8.846 Acceptable
Source: authors’ elaboration.
According to Table 2, all determined factors were estimated to be among
the eective factors on Sexual Victimization of Children (µ ≥7).
The results showed that the degree of inconsistency of six items of the
pairwise comparison matrices were less than the standard limit (0.1) and
943
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 40 Nº 74 (2022): 936-952
thus all items were used in AHP. The nal matrix of pairwise comparisons
was formed by using the six matrices of pairwise comparisons obtained by
the experts; thus, the arrays of the nal matrix of pairwise comparisons
were formed from the average arrays of all six pairwise comparison
matrices obtained from experts. Table (3) shows the nal matrix of pairwise
comparisons. The degree of inconsistency of the above matrix is 0.08,
which is a veried value.
Table 3. The nal matrix of pairwise comparisons for the factors aecting
sexual victimization of children
Social Economic Psychological Media Legal Executive
3.36587 2.0 2.0 3.0 3.9487
5.0 7.0 5.0 2.0
7.0 1.43097 3.03143
1.64375 4.04282
3.5652
Incon:0.08
Source: authors’ elaboration.
The weight of the criteria
The weight and importance of each criterion was determined using the
information of the nal matrix of pairwise comparisons and Expert Choice
2000 software.
Table (4) shows the weight of each of the inuential criteria.
Table 4. The weight of each of the criteria aecting sexual victimization of
children
No. Main criteria Weight Normalized weight Rank
1 Economic 0.397 1 1
2Executive 0.257 0.647 2
3 Psychological 0.143 0.362 3
4 Social 0.095 0.240 4
5 Legal 0.057 0.143 5
6 Media 0.051 0.129 6
Source: authors’ elaboration.
944
Sahand Mahdavi Zargar, Shahla Moazami y Shadi Azimzadeh
Prioritizing Factors Aecting Sexual Victimization of Children and Identifying Personality
Characteristics of Sex Delinquents in Iran
As can be seen in table (4), the most inuencing factors (weight) on
sexual delinquency were economic (1), executive (0.647), psychological
(0.362), social (0.240), legal (0.143) and media (0.129) factors, respectively.
The degree of inconsistency was estimated to be 0.08, which is lower than
the standard limit of 0.1; therefore, these results can be trusted.
B: Identifying the personality characteristics of sex delinquents
Table (5) indicates that the personality characteristics of sex delinquents
included sociability, domination, boldness, suspicion, imagination,
insecurity, self-righteousness, anxiety, objective reasoning, emotional
instability, lethargy, non-adherence to the law, stubbornness, self-
disclosure, conservatism and unrestrainedness (Table 5).
Table 5. Prole of Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors questionnaire in 43 sex
oenders
Factors F- Aligned scores F+ Factors
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Isolation A 3 5 11 20 4 A Sociability
Objective
reasoning B11 23 8 1 BAbstract
reasoning
Emotional
instability C22 15 5 1 CEmotional
stability
Submission E 2 3 17 19 2 E Domination
Lethargy F 1 20 18 3 1 F Vitality
non-adherence to
the law G10 13 10 8 1 1 GAdherence to
the law
Caution H1 2 3 11 10 16 H Boldness
Stubbornness I 8 11 20 2 1 1 IGentle and
sensitive
Trust L 2 1 2 9 13 16 L Skepticism
Pragmatism M 1 2 1 2 12 10 15 M Imagination
Self-disclosure N 16 9 12 2 1 1 2 N Accountancy
Safety O1 2 2 8 12 18 OUnsafety
Conservatism Q1 14 15 11 2 1 Q1 Empiricism
Reliance on
others Q2 1 2 10 12 18 Q2 Self-
righteousness
Unrestrainedness Q3 1 8 16 10 5 1 2 Q3 Perfectionism
Calmness Q4 1 2 16 13 11 Q4 Anxiety
Source: authors’ elaboration.
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Vol. 40 Nº 74 (2022): 936-952
According to the information in Table 5, it can be said that the oenders
are sociable in terms of personality, meaning that they are people with
strong communication and have eective interactions with others.
• Another characteristic of sex oenders is domination, which includes
a set of behaviors, customs, and principles that cause one person to
dominate another person in the sexual dimension or lifestyle.
• Another personality trait of sex delinquents is boldness, indicating
that most of them are fearless and bold people.
• Another personality trait of sex delinquents is suspicion, so they
don’t trust others most of the time.
• The results showed that the personality of sex oenders is
imaginative and not pragmatism.
• Another personality trait identied for sex oenders is unsafety,
which aects their communication, and they are distrustful of
communicating with others, but at the same time, they try to adapt
to others.
• Another personality trait of sex oenders is selshness, so that
these people are not able to sympathize and understand the feelings
of others and exploit others as much as possible. Self-righteous
people have unfavorable expectations from others, they need a lot of
admiration from others and feel arrogance.
• Another personality trait of sex oenders is anxiety and indicates that
they are restless people. Sex oenders suer from other personality
characteristics, including objective reasoning, emotional instability,
lethargy, non-adherence to the law, stubbornness, self-disclosure,
conservatism, and unrestrained Ness, which are considered negative
personality characteristics.
4. Discussion
The results of our analyses revealed that the most inuencing parameters
on sexual delinquency were economic, executive, psychological, social, legal
and media factors, respectively.
One of the eective factors that may aect the sexual victimization
of children is the economic factor, and criminologists have paid special
attention to it and have written about this factor in most of their works.
Therefore, criminologists have agreed on the principle that “the economic
factor is eective in sexual victimization” and if there is a dierence in some
cases, it is due to the eect of dierent aspects of this strong factor (Stewart
et al, 2019).
946
Sahand Mahdavi Zargar, Shahla Moazami y Shadi Azimzadeh
Prioritizing Factors Aecting Sexual Victimization of Children and Identifying Personality
Characteristics of Sex Delinquents in Iran
Economic poverty can be one of the important factors of committing
people to all kinds of deviations such as theft and paraphilia, especially in
adolescents and young people, and they will leave their negative impact on
human life in any case (Letourneau et al., 2017). Deprivation of food and
clothing, illiteracy, backwardness, ignorance and superstitions, insucient
hygiene and all kinds of mental and physical diseases and even wars and
bloodshed at the global level are all rooted in material needs and poverty.
Unemployment, which is the result of the economic crisis, causes
unemployment and puts people in trouble and is the basis for committing
various crimes (Smallbone et al, 2013). Poverty in the family causes parents
to be unable to fulll their duties in order to meet the needs of life, in such a
way that they abandon raising their children and start working outside the
home. Inadequate housing for families, lack of living facilities, unhealthy
entertainment, inability of families to protect their children from corruption
in unhealthy environments and socializing with unscrupulous people are
all caused by poverty and helplessness of families (Letourneau et al, 2017;
Stewart et al, 2019).
Sexual victimization may occur due to social factors, because criminology
of some social factors is examined under the title of social environment,
which is a part of social factors (Savioja, 2019). In this regard, we analyze
some of the social factors under the same title. Social factors cause an
increase in sexual delinquency and victimization, which are problems that
have a wide scope throughout society; in other words, sexual delinquency
also increases with the increase in the extent of family disorder.
The social and economic dimensions together show the special
importance of these two, so that the inappropriate conditions of each of
them create many problems for families, such as the increase of sexual
delinquency in the society (Smallbone et al., 2013). The family is one of the
most important factors aecting the society; as far as it is possible to say
that no society can be healthy unless it has healthy families.
It is obvious that any failure in the functioning of the family leaves adverse
eects on the child’s behavior, which can have negative consequences for
the entire society. As prevention is better than treatment to prevent disease,
it is necessary to take preventive actions to prevent sexual delinquency in
order to nally achieve a healthy society (Badali, 2019).
Psychological factors originating from the family and school
environment can have an eect on delinquency and sexual victimization
of children and adolescents. Usually, the parents of delinquent children
or adolescents are either very violent and strict in terms of behavior, or
they are very inattentive and negligent towards their children (Amran et
al., 2020). Parents of this group of children and adolescents often suer
from problems in communicating with their children and cannot properly
perform their duties towards their children (Curcio et al., 2013).
947
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Vol. 40 Nº 74 (2022): 936-952
Researchers and scientists have found the fact that family factors are
among the crime factors in the society that provide the causes of crime.
Criminologists also conrm that the family is the most important center for
the education of children’s delinquency and victimization. The results of
most studies showed that family factors have a signicant eect on sexual
delinquency and victimization of people (Badali, 2019; Kirby, 2015; Curcio
et al., 2013; Woodward et al., 2017; Savioja, 2019).
Considering the fact that the health of the society depends on the
health of the individual and the family, extra eorts should be made to
eliminate the causes of sexual abuse. It should be kept in mind that despite
the control of social, economic, family and psychological factors, we still
cannot hope that sexual victimization and delinquency can be controlled.
Because researchers have acknowledged in the last two decades that media
factors and mass media have undeniable eects on sexual delinquency and
victimization (Wickman, 2017; Wykes, 2014).
The media factor is one of the other inuential factors identied in
this research. Human achievements in relation to industry and new
technologies, in addition to benets and prosperity, have always brought
harm. One of the clear examples of these innovations is the creation of
social networks (Razavi Fard et al., 2017). While creating interaction and
multi-way communication among users, these networks make it possible
to share interests, communicate with other cultures, beliefs, and religions,
and obtain information on various topics.
In addition to these advantages, the incorrect use of these networks can
lead to irreparable harm, such as the endangerment of personal privacy, the
loss of family relationships, and the phenomenon of sexual abuse. Sexual
delinquency in social networks can be dened as the process of sexual
victimization of people through the emergence, growth, development and
consequently the use of information and communication technology. This
crime can manifest itself in various forms, including sexual harassment,
extortion, and pornography.
Therefore, identifying the sources of this damage both at the social-
family level and within social networks requires the provision of a complete
and comprehensive program in order to provide the possibility of curbing
a wide range of sexual injuries in this communication technology, on the
one hand, and all aected persons should be included in its measures by
identifying dierent classes of sexual victims, on the other hand (Razavi
Fard et al, 2017).
Another factor aecting sexual delinquency is executive factors. Executive
factors refer to the strict supervision of executive agents on harmful
environments; monitoring the correct implementation of preventive and
protective rules and regulations; establishing a management organization
948
Sahand Mahdavi Zargar, Shahla Moazami y Shadi Azimzadeh
Prioritizing Factors Aecting Sexual Victimization of Children and Identifying Personality
Characteristics of Sex Delinquents in Iran
for the prevention of sex crimes; cooperation of governmental and non-
governmental institutions in order to prevent sex oenders; identifying
vulnerable and high-risk people; and providing suitable platforms for not
committing sex crimes. Some researchers including Bagheri (2017), and
Tawhidi and Fazli (2013) have studied the eect of executive factors.
Another identied inuential factor on the sexual delinquency of
children and adolescents is related to legal factors. The results obtained
from the interviews with experts and the classication of the results showed
that legal factors such as revision of laws and regulations, maximum use
of decriminalization methods, emphasis on restorative justice, formulation
of preventive (active) criminal policy against sexual harassment, adopting
situation-oriented preventive measures (situation-oriented), and
formulating counter-criminal policy (reactive prevention) can be eective
in preventing sexual victimization of children and adolescents.
The research literature supports the obtained results, so that in
accordance with the results of the present study, Bagheri (2017) also found
the eect of the mentioned factors to be eective in preventing sexual
victimization of children and adolescents.
Conclusion and Suggestions
The results indicate the identication of six factors aecting the sexual
victimization of children and adolescents; among the factors, the highest
rank was related to economic factors and the lowest rank was related to
the media factor. Therefore, according to the ndings of the research, the
prevention and postvention model is presented for each factor, so that the
use of the results of this research and the desired models for the identied
factors is suggested for the ocials and planners.
Table 6. Suggested prevention strategies in the eld of factors aecting sexual
victimization and delinquency
Dimensions Prevention strategies
Economic
factors
Rapid development of educational indicators in schools
Rapid development of entrepreneurship in society
Conducting vocational training and entrepreneurship courses
Economic rehabilitation of sex delinquents and the family of
sex victims
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Social factors
Control of crime-prone places and neighborhoods through
both governmental and non-governmental institutions
Family supervision and control over children in unsafe
environments
Parental supervision and control over friends and
acquaintances of sexually abused children
Education of sexual care to children in families and schools
Identifying sexually deviant people in society and monitoring
them
Identifying vulnerable points and social crisis in urban, rural
and informal settlements and planning to improve their
situation.
Continuous assessment of social health, especially sexual
delinquency, and adoption of mechanisms to reduce it.
Providing various facilities and opportunities for the leisure
time of the community members, especially children and
adolescents.
Psychological
factors
Creating a healthy environment without fear in the family
Educating families about proper parenting
Teaching the correct and rational treatment of children with
sex oenders
Existence of diagnostic tools and equipment to determine the
level of readiness of criminals to leave care facilities
Legal factors
Maximum use of judicial solutions
Developing preventive (active) criminal policy against sexual
harassment
Adopting situation-oriented preventive measures
Identifying the legal gap in the eld of sexual delinquency
Media factors
Educating families to prevent sexual delinquency by national
media
Non-use of satellite in the family
Controlled use of mass media for children under 18 years of
age
Proper sex education in schools and family
Using the capacity of virtual space and social networks to
inform, raise awareness and increase people’s sensitivity to
sexual injuries.
Using the capacity of mass media in the eld of information
and awareness in the eld of controlling and reducing sexual
harm.
950
Sahand Mahdavi Zargar, Shahla Moazami y Shadi Azimzadeh
Prioritizing Factors Aecting Sexual Victimization of Children and Identifying Personality
Characteristics of Sex Delinquents in Iran
Executive
factors
Cooperation of governmental and non-governmental
institutions to prevent sex oenders
Detailed supervision of executive agents on harmful
environments
Monitoring the correct implementation of preventive and
protective regulations
Providing appropriate platforms for not committing sex crimes
Forming a management organization for the prevention of sex
crimes
Identifying vulnerable and high-risk people
Setting up a monitoring system for the prevention of sex crimes
Source: authors’ elaboration.
Study limitations
This research was conducted cross-sectionally, which makes it dicult
to draw conclusions about causality.
Acknowledgments
The authors express their gratitude for the sincere cooperation of the
PhD students to examine the “credibility” criterion. This article has been
adapted from a PhD thesis in criminal law and criminology at the Faculty
of Humanities, Ardabil Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ardabil, Iran, with
the approval code of 139891666.
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Esta revista fue editada en formato digital y publicada
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Vol.40 Nº 74